Oil-burner.



H, B. STILZ. OIL BURNER. APPLICATION PILBUMAY 8, 1911.

Patented July 1, 1913.

lnvm/or 73% MW Arm/ 5.

Fla- 1 WIT/795585 To al! whom it may camera I A E omen. mcmrmn.

' I cit-Burning" Be it known that I, HARRY 'B. S'rna, a citizen of the United States, residmg" at Vallejo, county of Solano, Stateof California, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Oil-Burners, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being1 had to they accompanying drawings,

whic form a part of this specification. 4

My invention relates to improvementsm oil burners in which the oil is atomized principallyby mechanical means and has for its ob ect to produce a burner which shall be simple in construction and reliable and efiicient in operation. p

In the burning of fuel oil, atomized in passing through nozzles which spray it into a fine film by mechanical means, (eflt'ected usually by the centrifugal action of a rapidly rotating jet from a small circular orifice, causing the 011 to leave the orifice as an evenly spread mass over the surface of a cone), it has been found necessary, for ob tainin the best results, to preheat the oil to sue an extent that a portion of it will flash into vapor on encountering the lower atmospheric pressure. With these burners some trouble has been experienced in starting the fire in a cold boiler without producing considerable smoke. In some cases it has been found that the kind of oil used for fuel is not of the nature to be readily heated ,to a point where any of it will flash into vapor upon delivery from the nozzle; This is true of California fuel oil, especially that kind which is a by-product from the refineries and therefore has had nearly all of its volatile constitutents removed during the refining process and contains little more than the asphalt base. In order to secure perfect combustion with this variety of oil,

a suitably directed jet of steam is a valuable adjunct for securing perfect atomization;

the steam which is introduced acting upon the oil in a manner similar to andpr'oducing results similar to those produced by the vaporwhich flashes into'existence with such oils as. can be partially vaporized. More over, with those nozzles depending upon the centrifugal action of the jet alone, the delivery orifices must be very'small, thereby increasing the chances of choking up; a very high pressure must be maintained on the 011 provide some sort of an a supply system in order to pr vent the formation of the oil; and the steam heaters, to,-

gether with other necessary auxiliary devices produce a rather complex system.

. In accordance with my invention the steam is brought into' action upon the oil in such a manner that the mechanical action of the etis not interfered with, the two being so mtimately associated that the oil may be effectually heated with even less steam than is required to pass through the steam heaters in the other system. I accomplish this by the simple expedient of a readily accessible steam superhe'ating coil whichprevents all possibilit' of'destruction of atomization by reason 0 the oil becoming too hot. Consequentl my invention may be' regarded as having for further objects the production of a burner which will efliciently bur-n any of the diflerent kinds of fuel oil in commercial use and to reduce to a minimum the quantity of steam needed to assistin the atomization of the oil.

In all of the burners of which I am aware,-

a jet of flame is projected into the furnace at a high velocity, making it necessar to utment to c eck and diffuse the flame allowing little opportunity for the air to become mixed with the combustible, and roducing an objectionable roaring noise. vention are to produce a burner which will produce perfect combustion by insuring a perfect admixture of air with the fuel right at the zone of combustion; to utilize the velocity'of the atomizing steam in such a manner that it will be dissipated in diffusing the oil into a spray which then enters the furnace at a relative'l low velocity, obviating the object-ionab e noise of other burners and permitting the furnace to become filled with flame without resorting to special means for diverting and deflecting the flame'after it enters the furnace. It 'is sometimes desirable to make it possible to shut off the steam after a normal firing condition is reached and therefore, a further object of my invention may be said to be the; production of a burner which will permit the steam to be shut off and perfectcombustion to be maintained thereafter.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafterbe-pointed' out with particularity in Patented July 1913. 4

Further objects of my in- Y the burner end of a 'so that it will not interfere .with t the claims; hut-for a full understanding of m invention and of its various objects and ad vantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein: I

Figure l-isa longitudinal section through furnace nipped in ac cordance with one form. of my mventiomthe .burner being shown in side elevation; Fig. 2 is a section on line 2.2 of Fig. 1; Fi 3 1s a transverse'section, on a liar er scale, t rough the nozzle of the burner ig. 4 is a central longitudinalsection through the nozzle.

Referring toFigs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, 1 representsa furnace ofany usual or suitable construction having a front plate 2. Within the furnace, back of the front plate. is a wall 3 of the fire brick or other refrac-- tory material. On the outside of the plate, and in front of the same is fitted a casing 4 having air ports5. At the center of the easing, inthe outer wall thereof, is a small opening 6 into which projects the nozzle 7 of my improved. burner. A hole 8, co-axial with the hole in the front of the casi but larger than the same, is. cut throng the frontplate 2 and the wall 3. The nozzle injects a spray of oil or oil and steam through the openings 6 and 8 into the furnace. The opening 8j'is made large enough e incoming spray and yet s'malle'nough to brin the air w ich flows int th furnace through the ports 5 and the o ening' 8 into close contact with the atomize oil. When the nozzle is located at a suitable distance from the open- I pass through the opening in a stream ing. With lots of steam flowing,

ing in the front of the furnace, (which opening is preferably circular,) it is possible to regulate the divergenceof the spray so as tocause it completely to fill the openin or to having openthe flame is rendered relatively long and narrow. With the-steam' shut off and only pure oil flowing, the angle of divergence is not great unless the oil is under heavy ,pressure. B properly proportioning the amount 0 steam almost any degree of divergence may be obtained. After the burner has been in o era-' tion for a short time the refractory we 1 bea smaller cross-sectional area-than the comes so hot that it maintains an igniting temperature. Consequently, the fuel and the incoming air are brought together'in a zone where combustion immediately begins, so that perfect combustion of the oilresults and the furnace becomes filled with a slowly moving flame which spreads out on all sides as soon as .the refractory wall-is passed. In the arrangement shown, the oil, under pressure, is suppliedto-the nozzle through a pipe 9, while steam is admitted through a i .e 10. The steam'maybe under *the normal oiler pressure and preferably passes through a will then leave coil 11 which is placed on the inner side of the refractory wall and encircles the opening 8, before being admitted to the nozzle. This permits the steam to become highly superheated, this being advantageous not only in thatit decreases the quantity of steam re: quired but also because it decreases the quantity ofmo'isture in the oil s ra and increases the temperature of the'oi with the 'result that more perfect combustion results.

Where the oil is heated in a suitable heater, as by. the exhaust steam from the oil pump, the eificiency of the burner will be sti l further increased. v

The nozzle may take various forms so lon as it produces a whirling s ray of atomize oil under all conditions which are encountered in practice. In Figs. 3 and 4 I- have illustrated an arrangement inwhich both the steam and the oil are given rotary motions before they come in contact with each other. Referring to these figures, 12 represents a' hollow plug having an inlet at one end for receiving the supply pipe 9. The other end is made conical as indicated at 13 and is provided with a restricted discharge outlet 14. Within the plug is fitted a spiral 15 which preferably has conical ends, as indicated -at 16 in order that the incoming oil may be guided into the grooves of the spiral and the spiral in a thin conical layer. The-oil is forced in under sufficient, pressure. to produce a high rate of rotation, as it passes through the discharge orifice, thus causing the oil to spread out into a cone-shaped spray. The member 12 is screwed into or otherwise secured in a casing 17 which is provided with an annular groove 18 extending around the base of the cone- ;shaped end of the member 12. The casing extends somewhat beyond the discharge end of the plug and is there provided with an outlet 19 somewhat larger than the outlet-14. The casing is hollowed out so as to produce a shallow annular passage extending around 1 the cone-shaped end of the plug from'the passage 18 to the discharge outlet 19. The supply pipe for the steam opens into the easing tangentially to the passage 18, there being preferably a suitable nozzle 20 inter- 5 posed between the supply pipe and the passage 18. Consequently when steam is'introdu ed into the nozzle, it flows along thepassaid 18- and travels toward the discharge outlet in a thin whirling layer. The energy 2a of the steam ex anding through the member 20 is absorbed in setting upa violent rotation of the steam around the axis of the nozzle so that the rectilinear velocity ofthe jet from the orifice is relatively slow, corre- 1 25 spending about to the velocity of the air which enters the furnace, and thus affording the best opportunity for-fa perfectmixing' of the jet with the air. 1 I The operation is as follows The oil leaves with and extending the inner orifice of the nozzle in a conical spray and, before it can pass through the outer orifice, it is caught by the rotating steam and is perfectly atomized. In this condition the oil mixes with therequi'site amount of air just as it reaches the hot refractory wall, and perfect combustion ensues. n It will be seen that the quantity of steam required for atomi'zin purposes is of course greatest when the fire 1s being started. With astro'ng draft and high furnace temperature once established, the supply of steam can be greatly reduced and in some conditions comletely discontinued without detracting rom the efficiency of combustion. In this case the mechanical atomization of the oil suffices It will be understood that other gases than steam may be used for atomizing purposes, steam being usually most convenient because it is available without the useof pressure devices in addition to the boiler itself. e While I have illustrated a preferred form of my. invention and have described vthis form with considerable particularity, I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illustrated and described,

but intend to cover all forms and arrange-- ments which come within the terms employed in the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A nozzle having a small discharge orifice, means immediately adjacent to said orifice for roducing a whirling motion in a liquid fluid passing therethrough, a casing surrounding said nozzle and having a restricted discharge port concentric with said orifice and means for causing'a gaseous fluid.

passing through the space within said casing to enter said port in a whirling current,

2. A nozzle having a assage terminated by a small'discharge ori ce,-a;spiral within said passage covering the cross section thereof, a casing surrounding said nozzle and havinga discharge ort arran ed concentric iieyond sai orifice means within said casing for whirling the fluid assing therethrough and connections for orcing a liquid through said nozzle and a gas through the space withinsaid casing. 3. A nozzle having a assage terminated by a small delivery ori ce for a liquid, a

spiral within said passage covering the cross section thereof, a casing surrounding said nozzle and having a restricted discharge port in line with said orifice and an admission port for a gaseous fluid directed therethrough, at an angle to theradii from the axis thereof;

. 4. A liquid spray nozzle having a passage terminated by a small discharge orifice, a spiral within said passage covering the cross section thereof, a casing surroundingsaid nozzle and having a restricted discharge vport in line with said orifice, a conduit for a gaseous fluid'directed tangentially into the annular space within said'casing and an expanding nozzle positioned in said conduit.

5. A liquid spray nozzle having a passage abruptly contracted at one end by a cone shaped surface into a small delivery orifice, a transverse spiral within said passage and resting against the base of said cone shaped surface, a casing surrounding said nozzle and having a restricted discharge port in line with said orifice and means Within said casing for whirling a gaseous fluid passing therethrough.

6. In combination, a furnace having an admission hole'through'its casing, a nozzle having means for projecting a hollow cone shaped film of oil from a round unobstructed delivery orifice into said furnace through said hole, means surrounding said nozzle for producing a'whirling stream of gaseous fluid directed so as to penetrate-said-film of oil and means for supplying air into the furnace through said hole.

7. In combination, a furnace having an admission hole through its casing, a lining of refractory material for said hole, a nozzle having means for projecting a hollow cone shaped film of oil into said, furnace through said hole, means surrounding said nozzle for producing a whirling stream of gaseous fluid directed so as to penetrate said film of oil, and'means for supplying air into the furnace through said hole.

In testimony whereof, I sign this specification in the presence of. two witnesses.

q v HARRY B. STILZ. Witnesses:

H'. L. QUINN, ALF. E. EnooUMBn. 

